And now we come to the most recent Transformers show, Earthspark. The show is just barely a year old and we’re currently waiting for the second season, so let’s see how the new show begins and if it’s promising for the future.

Rather than give us a history lesson or leap right into an explosive dogfight in space, we open up on a strange robot spider before we see two Decepticons, Swindle and Hardtop, sneak into a yard to steal energon from some shipping crates. They are interrupted by Optimus Prime and Elita One a character that in the last decade went from someone who appeared in 2 episodes of G1 to now basically head female Autobot (which was a role she had in G1) During the battle though those spider robots start attacking both of them and though Optimus and Elita win capturing Hardtop, he wonders if these mechs have something to do with the vanishing Decepticons.

So right away we get a good action sequence between 4 Transformers that gives us some info on the show. It’s set after the war yet Optimus isn’t treating the Decepticons as enemies or even the defeated. Also we find that there are humans working with the Autobots and also other forces are targeting both.

We then move to our human cast the Maltos who have recently moved to the Witwicky as the mother Dot has a job as Park Ranger. The older sibling Robby isn’t happy, grabs his bike and tries to run away, only to be followed by his younger sister Mo. The two are then thrown off a bridge by an explosion when more of the spider robots attack the convoy containing Hardtop. It’s then they notice a strange glow coming from a cave and find an odd rock. The rock reacts to them (Mo pointed out touching things is how a horror movie starts) , weird cyber things appear on their arms and two brand new Transformers are brought into existence.

One of the interesting things about this show is indeed the Terrans, as they will become known as, are indeed brand new Transformers, not new versions of pre-existing ones from older shows.

Twitch and Thrash are going to become two of the main characters in the show, much more than Optimus and Megatron who are there but the focus of the show is clearly less about them and more about The Terrans and Maltos.

There’s a lovely moment when Alex. the kids’ father, tells them the history of the Transformers war, and though there are nice Easter eggs, such as the date they arrived being that of when the franchise started, we find he’s a massive Bumblebee fan, which given Hasbro over pushed on that one character this last decade, it’s nice just seeing someone that in love.

The first episode ends with Dot confronted by Megatron… but the second part starts with showing they are clearly friends and we’re told that Megatron teamed up with Optimus to help secure Cybertonian’s future after the space bridge was destroyed which ended the war.

We get some fun family moments as Twitch gets her new altmode and a confrontation with the series main villain Mandroid (named by the Terrans because he came up with the name Terran)

The two parter is more bright and optimistic than most. While the villain does get away it’s not leaving us on some ominous cliff-hanger to tease more and instead ends with the family of Moltos and Terrans at their home with Robby and Mo commenting they like it here now.

This is a great opening to the show and gives us a story that at least in animation we haven’t seen in Transformers before. Brand new Transformers that are more like a family than some team be elite or rookie. No grand Decepticon plan. Heck outside of the strange rock we don’t get much teasing about some overarching mystery. You want to see how this family grows? How Alex will interact with Bumblebee now that he’s with them as the Terrans teacher ? (heads up, its gold)

Rating: 🎅🎅🎅🎅🎅